Accidental collisions between vehicles such as cars, trucks and boats and support structures such as poles or columns occur frequently. When vehicles are backing, limited visibility adds to the problem of safely avoiding the structural supports. If the area is crowded with other vehicles or with materials to be moved such as in a warehouse, backing of a vehicle can be especially problematic. Accidental acceleration or poor traction due to spills or wet surfaces often also results in collisions between vehicles and structural supports such as light poles, telephone poles, traffic lights, and the like. Accidental acceleration or poor judgement of the distance between a boat and a supporting structure also occur resulting in damage.
In warehouses, previous attempts to protect a structural support or a vehicle and its driver from damage suffered due to collision have tended to protect one or the other, but not both. Further, such devices have been complicated or messy to install or both. Devices which partially enclose a structural support are known. One device to protect people who collide with I-beams from the impact, is the Soft-Post.TM. Urethane Pad. Such a pad is substantially C-shaped and clips around the upper and lower extensions of the I beam while failing to cover the body of the I. Partial enclosure of a structural support is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,925 (Vargo), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, a three quarters surround post protector which is bolted to the floor. Devices which surround a support thereby providing a greater protection and re-enforcement to the support are known. For example, to protect structural supports, especially those in warehouses, the structural supports have been encased in concrete or such supports have been provided by a hollow cylindrical device filled with concrete or gravel such as the Column Cushion available from Ancon Building Services Div. Goshen, Ind. 46526. Another example of protective apparatus, the pieces of which are connected by a tongue and groove system, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,006,386 (Menichini), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Protective devices also are known and used in aquatic environments such as at the base of a bridge support, on the supporting structures of an oil rig in the ocean and on the posts supporting a wharf. Such devices include encasing the supporting structure in concrete as above and providing a cushioning fender such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,364 (Darder-Alomar), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
None of the aforementioned provides the combined properties of impact absorption, protection of the structural support, cost effectiveness in manufacturing, and ease of installation which are provided by the inventive apparatus.
It is an object of this invention to provide a protective apparatus which is resilient and absorbs and redistributes impact.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide a protective apparatus which is easy to install and economical to manufacture.